Conditioning segmented content

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described herein for inserting placement opportunities into content assets. A content distributor may receive a content asset comprising a plurality of content fragments. The content distributor may be further configured to adjust a playback duration of a portion of the content fragments so that the placement opportunity may be inserted at the content asset fragment boundaries.

BACKGROUND

Content delivery systems may allow users to select and watch content,such as content assets, at the time of their choice rather than havingto wait for a specific broadcast time. Content assets may compriseplacement opportunities as an indication of an insertion point for theother content. In some cases, the content asset may be provided to thecontent distributor with an existing placement opportunity. In contrast,in certain content delivery systems, the content assets and informationindicating the placement opportunities may be generated as separatefiles and may be delivered at different times. As such, processing ofthe content asset for transmission to an end user may be delayed untilafter the placement opportunities are made available to the contentdistributor, resulting in a delay in viewing the content and decreasedcustomer satisfaction.

SUMMARY

Methods and systems for inserting information such as placementopportunities into content assets are described herein. A contentdistributor may be configured to receive a content asset and to dividethe content asset into a plurality of content fragments. However,placement opportunities may be generated separately from the contentfragments. As such, information associated with advertisingopportunities in the content asset may be received by a contentdistributor separately from the content asset. Upon receiving theinformation associated with placement opportunities, the contentdistributor may be configured to adjust a playback duration of only aportion of the content fragments so that the time at which the assetfragment starts, also known as the content asset fragment boundary, isshifted in order to align with the placement opportunity. Supplementalcontent may be inserted into the content asset without causing a delayin the content delivery and/or playback. Such a selective adjustment(e.g., regrooming, conditioning, etc.) of the portion of the asset mayminimize or eliminate the need to reprocess the entire content asset inorder to incorporate the placement opportunities. The number of contentfragments adjusted for the placement opportunity may be small comparedto the total number of content fragments. As an example, pairs ofcontent fragments adjacent a placement opportunity may be adjusted,while the remaining content fragments are maintained in their originalencoding or formatting (e.g., uniform playback duration). The contentdistributor may be configured to generate a manifest associated with thecontent asset, and to update the manifest upon receiving a placementopportunity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description is better understood when read inconjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes ofillustration, examples are shown in the drawings; however, the subjectmatter is not limited to specific elements and instrumentalitiesdisclosed. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an example content asset in accordance with InternetProtocol (IP) Delivery systems;

FIG. 3 shows an example content asset comprising an advertisingopportunity implemented outside of an advertising start time;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an example method in accordance withaspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an example content asset in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 shows an example content asset in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of an example method in accordance withaspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of a system in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows a flow chart of an example method in accordance withaspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of an example method in accordance withaspects of the disclosure; and

FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of an example computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

Methods and systems are described for inserting placement opportunitiessuch as advertising opportunities into content assets. Content assetsmay comprise advertising opportunities as an indication of an insertionpoint for advertisements. The content asset may be divided into aplurality of content fragments, and only a portion of those fragmentsmay need to be processed in order to incorporate the receivedadvertising opportunity. Processing of a portion of the contentfragments may comprise adjusting a playback duration of the portion offragments such that the adjusted fragment boundaries align with theadvertising opportunity. The advertising opportunity may be insertedinto the adjusted fragment boundaries without the need to reprocess theentire content asset.

FIG. 1 shows an example system 100 by which a content distributor 102,such as a content provider (e.g., Internet content distributor, cabletelevision content distributor, etc.), may insert an advertisingopportunity into a content asset. The content asset may comprise, forexample, a video asset made available by a content distributor. Thecontent distributor 102 may be configured to receive an advertisingopportunity to be inserted into the content asset. The advertisingopportunity may indicate a point in playback at which supplementalcontent such as an advertisement may be inserted into the content asset.The advertising opportunity may be received, for example, from anadvertising company, or may be generated by the content distributoritself.

The content distributor 102 may be configured to receive a contentasset. The content distributor 102 may be configured to divide thecontent asset into a plurality of content fragments. For example, athirty-minute television show may be divided into 900 fragments suchthat each content asset fragment represents two-seconds of content.Certain fragmenting standards and formats may be used to result infragments with generally uniform playback duration (e.g., 2 seconds, 10seconds, etc.). The content distributor 102 may be configured to processa portion of the content fragments such as conditioning one or more ofthe divided content fragments. For example, processing a portion of thecontent fragments may comprise adjusting a playback duration of aportion of the content fragments such that the portion of the contentfragments have a playback duration greater or less than the playbackduration (e.g., two seconds) of each of the remaining fragmentscomprised in the content asset. The portion of the content fragmentsthat are adjusted may comprise pairs of content fragments disposedadjacent an advertising opportunity. The content distributor 102 may beconfigured to insert the advertising opportunity (e.g., an indication ofthe advertising opportunity) in a determined location of the contentfragments. The location of the advertising opportunity in the contentasset may be received by the content provider with the informationassociated with the advertising opportunity.

The system 100 may comprise a transcoder 104. An input of the transcoder104 may receive the content asset and one or more advertisingopportunities from one or more sources, such as content distributor 102,while an output of the transcoder 104 may transmit the transcodedcontent asset and advertising opportunity to a packager 106. Thetranscoder 104 may be configured to convert the content asset, forexample, from one video format to another video format, such as oneamenable to the means by which the content distributor's users view thecontent. The content asset may be in any one of a variety of formats,such as, for example, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 2, or MPEG-2. The content assetmay be transmitted using one or more standards such as SCTE 35 or otherspecifications.

Digital audio/video compression may be used, such as MPEG, or any othertype of compression. Although reference may be made to example standards(e.g., MPEG) and formats, one of skill in the art will recognize thatthe systems and methods described herein are applicable to any format orstandard that support audio and/or video. As an example, the MovingPictures Experts Group (MPEG) was established by the internationalStandards Organization (ISO) for the purpose of generating standards fordigital audio/video compression. The combined MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4standards are hereinafter referred to as MPEG. In an MPEG encodedtransmission, content and other data are transmitted in packets, whichcollectively make up a transport stream. The present methods and systemsmay employ transmission of MPEG packets. However, the present methodsand systems are not so limited, and may be implemented using other typesof transmission and data.

The output of a single MPEG audio and/or video codec may be referred toas a transport stream. The transport stream may comprise one or moreelementary streams. An elementary stream may be or comprise an endlessnear real-time signal. For convenience, the elementary stream may bebroken into data blocks of manageable size, forming a packetizedelementary stream (PES). These data blocks need header information toidentify the start of the packets and must include time stamps becausepacketizing disrupts the time axis. For transmission and digitalbroadcasting, for example, several programs (e.g., content assets) andtheir associated PESs may be multiplexed into a multi program transportstream. A multi program transport stream has a program clock reference(PCR) mechanism that allows transmission of multiple clocks, one ofwhich may be selected and regenerated at the decoder.

A multi program transport stream may comprise a multiplex of audio andvideo PESs. In addition to the compressed audio, video and data, atransport stream may comprise metadata describing the bit stream. Suchmetadata may comprise a program association table (PAT) that lists everycontent asset (e.g., program) in the multi program transport stream.Each entry in the PAT may point to a program map table (PMT) that liststhe elementary streams making up each content asset. Some content may beunencrypted, but some content may be subject to conditional access(encryption) and this information is also carried in the metadata. Thetransport stream may be comprised of fixed-size data packets, forexample, each containing 188 bytes. Each packet may carry a programidentifier code (PID). Packets in the same elementary stream may allhave the same PID, so that the decoder (or a demultiplexer) may selectthe elementary stream(s) it wants and reject the remainder. Packetcontinuity counts may ensure that every packet that is needed to decodea stream is received. A synchronization system may be used so thatdecoders may correctly identify the beginning of each packet anddeserialize the bit stream into words.

A content asset, such as a program, may be a group of one or more PIDsthat are related to each other. For instance, a multi program transportstream used in digital television might contain three programs, torepresent three television channels. In some examples, each channel maycomprise one video stream, one or two audio streams, and any necessarymetadata. A receiver wishing to tune to a particular “channel” merelyhas to decode the payload of the PIDs associated with its program. Thereceiver may discard the contents of all other PIDs.

The transcoder 104 may comprise a fragmentor configured to divide (e.g.,segment) the content asset (such as in the event that the program hasnot yet been segmented) into a plurality of content fragments, or tore-segment the content asset (such as in the event that the program hadbeen previously segmented) based on the received information associatedwith the advertising opportunity. For example, a content asset may besegmented into a series of two-second fragments, ten-second fragments,or other fixed or variable time fragments. The terms “fragment” and“segment” may refer to any portion of a content asset and may be usedinterchangeably herein. It is understood that the fragmentor orfunctionality associated with the fragmentor may be separate from thetranscoder 104.

The system 100 may comprise a packager 106. An input of the packager 106may receive the transcoded content asset and advertising opportunityfrom the transcoder 104 or other source, while an output of the packager106 may transmit a packaged content asset with inserted advertisingopportunities to an origin server 108. The packager 106 may be, forexample, a VOD packager. The packager 106 may be configured to insertthe advertising opportunity into the content asset fragment boundaries,as discussed herein. The packager 106 may receive the divided contentasset and the advertising opportunity from the transcoder 104, insertthe one or more advertising opportunities into the content asset, andorganize the plurality of content fragments into a packaged contentasset. The packaged content asset may be transmitted to a recipientdevice to facilitate playback. As such, the recipient device may processthe packaged content asset and may be directed to access or receive anadvertisement at certain points during playback, such as theadvertisement opportunities inserted into the content asset.

The packager 106 may be configured to generate a manifest fileassociated with the content asset. Generally, a manifest file maycontain information describing various aspects of the associated contentasset that may be useful for the device 114 to playback the contentasset and/or for the content distributor 102 to store and retrieve theprogram. For example, a manifest file may indicate each of the pluralityof content fragments, the playback duration of each fragment, the numberof fragments, and/or the proper ordering of the fragments necessary toeffectuate a playback of the content asset. A manifest file may comprisea network location (e.g., a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) uniformresource locater (URL) link or other universal resource identifier(URI)) for each fragment from which the fragment may be downloaded,accessed, or retrieved. It will be appreciated that the networklocations included within a manifest file may point to more than onedifferent location or source. A manifest file may be provided to any ofthe devices 114 in response to a request to receive a program. Thedevice 114 may use the manifest file to determine the fragments requiredto play the program or a portion of the program and subsequentlydownload the required fragments using the network locations specified inthe manifest file.

The origin server 108 may receive as an input the packaged content assetfrom the packager 106. The origin server 108 may be configured toreceive and fulfill a request from any of the user devices 114, via thecontent delivery network 110, to deliver a content asset to the device114 for playback. The request from the device 114 to deliver the contentasset may comprise identifications of the user (e.g., an accountidentifier, a username and/or a password), the device 114, the requestedcontent asset, and/or a playback time point or temporal location. Incertain aspects, the request to deliver the content asset may reflect auser skipping to a particular portion of a content asset of which theinitial segments of the content asset have already been delivered andare being played on the device 114. Upon receiving a request to delivera content asset to the device 114, the origin server 108 may provide oneor more manifest files to the device 114 via the content deliverynetwork 110 that describe the program and segments thereof, includingnetwork locations from which each segment may be downloaded. Using themanifest file, the device 114 may iteratively download and beginplayback of the content asset.

The content delivery network (CDN) 110 may be configured to act as anintermediary server located between the user devices 114 and the contentdistributor 102. More particularly, the CDN 110 may serve cached objectsto client device 114 and may manage some or all aspects of the cachedobjects of client device 114. Such architecture may reduce the cost,resource, and bandwidth usage and may improve the security of userdevice 114. For example, instead of validating the cached objects bycommitting various resources and using bandwidth to connect to aplurality of network-based resources, user device 114 needs only torequest the validation from the content delivery network 110. In turn,the content delivery network 110 may connect to the plurality ofnetwork-based resources, such as the origin server 108, to refresh thecached objects, and return the refreshed objects to user device 114.

The content access unit 112 may be configured to receive as an input arequest to access content from the content distributor 102 via theplurality of user devices 114. The content access unit 112 may be, forexample, a VOD device. As shown in FIG. 1, a user device may comprise,for example, at least one of a laptop 114 a, a television 114 b, asmartphone 114 c, a tablet 114 d, a desktop 114 e, a VR headset 114 f,or any other device capable of presenting content to a user. The usermay interact with the content distributor 102 via a user interfaceassociated with the content access unit 112. Upon this interaction, thecontent asset may be delivered to a user device, such as any of the userdevices 114 shown in FIG. 1, for playback. As used herein, the contentaccess unit 112 may comprise any combination of a hardware element, suchas a set-top cable box, a streaming-video player, or a quadratureamplitude modulation (QAM) client, or a software element, such as a webbrowser or other software adapted to playback video.

FIG. 2 shows an example content asset 200 provided by contentdistributor 102. The content asset 200 may comprise a plurality ofcontent fragments which have been processed based on the known locationof the advertising opportunities. The content asset 200 may utilize, forexample, an Internet Protocol (IP) delivery mechanism. The content assetmay be divided into a plurality of content fragments, such as contentfragments 202, 206, and 210 shown in FIG. 2. Each of the contentfragments 202, 206, 210 may have an equal playback duration, forexample, two-seconds. Segmenting of the content assets into a pluralityof content fragments, as shown in FIG. 2, may be performed, for example,by the fragmentor associated with the transcoder 104, shown in FIG. 1,in order to rebalance the use of the network resources based on thenumber of customers available to the content distributor. Fragments whencombined with multiple bitrates may reduce strain on the network andallow the content distributor to connect to a larger customer base.Smaller content fragments may allow the content distributor to reactquickly to changes in demand on the network. On the other hand,generating content assets that are too short may result in too much timespent on requesting a new file.

The content distributor 102 may be configured to provide to a user oneor more advertising opportunities, such as the advertising opportunities204 and 208 shown in FIG. 2. An advertising opportunity, as shown inFIG. 2, may be inserted by the content distributor 102 before or afterany one of the content fragments 202, 206, and 210. For example, FIG. 2shows a content asset comprising a content asset fragment 202, followedby an advertising opportunity 204, a second content asset fragment 206,followed by a second advertising opportunity 208 and a third contentasset fragment 210. Each content asset fragment may comprise multiplecontent fragments and may comprise, for example, a video asset, an audioasset, or a combination of the two, as discussed herein.

The content distributor 102 may be configured to provide a manifest to auser of the IP delivery system. The manifest may be provided, forexample, by the packager 106, as discussed herein. In addition toidentifying all of the files that make up the content asset, themanifest may also comprise information associated with the opportunitiesto insert or replace advertisements in the content assets. Insertion ofadvertising opportunities in IP delivery is generally easy because thefragment boundaries are aligned with the advertising opportunities.

In example content delivery systems, such as, for example, video ondemand (VOD) systems, the content asset and the advertising opportunitymay be separate files received by a content distributor, such as contentdistributor 102, at different times. This may be a problem for thecontent distributor, who may wish to process the content asset and theadvertising opportunity together and allow them to be viewed at thebeginning of the license window. For example, providing the contentasset may be highly biased to the start of the license window, whichrepresents the time that a content distributor may offer the contentasset to customers, such as any of the user devices 114 shown in FIG. 1.In order to meet these needs, content distributors may choose to processthe content asset without knowing the locations of the advertisingopportunities. The content distributor may make the content assetavailable to customers without the advertising opportunity. When theadvertising opportunities are delivered to the content distributor at alater time, the advertising opportunities may be adjusted to theexisting segment boundaries. However, if the received advertisingopportunity identifies an advertisement insertion location that isoutside of the existing segment boundaries, the content asset may bepresented in an undesirable fashion.

As shown in FIG. 3, the content asset processed prior to receiving anadvertising opportunity may comprise three content fragments: assetfragment 302, asset fragment 308, and asset fragment 310. The contentdistributor may choose to segment the content asset into a plurality ofcontent fragments in order to provide the customer with the contentasset either without an advertising opportunity or with an oldadvertising opportunity received by the content distributor prior toreceiving the content asset. The content asset, as originally processed,may identify an implemented advertising start time 306 after contentasset 302. However, the advertising opportunity may indicate that theadvertisement is to be inserted at a location that does not align withthe fragment boundaries. This may result in the advertising opportunityinterrupting the content asset fragment, leading to user dissatisfactionthat a portion of the content asset has been replaced by advertisements.If the received advertising opportunity identifies an advertisementreplacement, some portion of the original advertisement may bepresented. Additionally or alternatively, the advertising opportunitymay not be played until the implemented advertising start time 306,leading to a portion of the advertising opportunity being cut off. Thismay result in dissatisfied advertisers and a reduction in advertisingprofits for the content distributor.

As discussed herein, the content asset may be processed twice, a firsttime when the content asset is received and a second time theadvertising opportunity is received. This process may allow the contentasset to be offered as soon as possible, while still allowing thecontent distributor to insert advertising opportunities as needed.However, there are costs and time delays associated with processing ofthe content asset multiple times.

Additionally or alternatively, the content asset may be withheld fromusers by the content distributor 102 until the advertising opportunityis received. This may prevent the content distributor from facing theproblems discussed herein, including the associated costs and timedelays. However, this may also result in a reduced number of the totalviews as customers may be displeased with the unpredictable delay inviewing the content. By choosing to wait until the advertisingopportunity has been received to process the content asset to make itavailable to users, content distributors may suffer a potential loss ofrevenue.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart for an example method 400 for insertingadvertising opportunities into an existing content asset. As shown atstep 402 of FIG. 4, a content asset may be received or accessed, forexample, by the content distributor 102 shown in FIG. 1. The contentasset may be a video asset, an audio asset, or any type of media assetor any combination thereof. The content asset may comprise an MPEGtransport stream. The content asset may be received by the contentdistributor 102 without an advertising opportunity. The content assetmay comprise a plurality of content fragments. Additionally oralternatively, the content asset may be divided into a plurality ofcontent fragments. Each of the content fragments may present a portionof the content asset and may have an equal playback duration, forexample, two-seconds. Segmenting of the content asset into a pluralityof content fragments may be performed, for example, by the fragmentorassociated with the transcoder 104 shown in FIG. 1. The content assetmay be divided into a plurality of content fragments in order to allowfor lower bitrates and to allow the content distributor to react quicklyto changes in demand on the network.

At step 404, information associated with an advertising opportunity maybe received or accessed by the content provider 102. The advertisingopportunity may be received, for example, by the content distributor 102at a time that is different from when the content asset was received.The information associated with the content asset may compriseinformation indicating a location in the content asset to insert theadvertising opportunity. For example, the information associated withthe advertising opportunity may contain instructions to insert theadvertising opportunity ten minutes into the content asset. Theinformation associated with the advertising opportunity may be specificto a user requesting playback of the content asset, for example, any ofthe user devices 114 shown in FIG. 1. For example, the contentdistributor 102 may determine that Advertising Opportunity A should beassociated with User A, while Advertising Opportunity B should beassociated with User B.

At step 406, a first modified content fragment having a first playbackduration and a second modified content fragment having a second playbackduration may be generated. The first playback duration may be differentthan the second playback duration. In one embodiment, the playbackdurations of the content fragments may be adjusted, for example, so thatone or more advertising opportunities may be inserted into the contentasset without interrupting the content or resulting in the content beingdisplayed in an unfavorable manner. For example, in response to thereceived instructions indicating that the advertising opportunity shouldbe inserted ten minutes into the content asset, the content distributor,via the fragmentor associated with the transcoder 104, may adjust aplayback duration of a first two-second asset fragment immediatelypreceding the ten minute mark in the content asset as well as a playbackduration of a second two-second fragment immediately after the tenminute mark in the content asset. The first modified content fragmentmay have playback duration of one second, while the second contentfragment may have a second playback duration of three seconds.

At step 408, a modified content asset comprising the first modifiedcontent fragment, the second modified content fragment, and theadvertising opportunity may be generated. The first content fragment andthe second content fragment may comprise less than one percent of theplurality of content fragments. For example, a thirty-minute contentasset may comprise 900 two-second content fragments. Rather thanreprocess entire file, the content distributor may be configured toidentify the fragment in which the advertising opportunity occurs andreprocess that fragment. If a content distributor wanted to insert, forexample, four advertising breaks into the content asset, only eightcontent fragments would need to be processed, less than one percent ofthe total number of content fragments.

Adjusting the playback duration of the first content fragments and theplayback duration of the second content fragments may comprise removinga portion of the content from the first content fragments and insertingthe portion of the content from the first content fragments into thesecond content fragments. Using the example above, adjusting a playbackduration of a two two-second asset fragment may comprise removing aone-second portion from the first content fragments and inserting theone-second portion into the second content fragments. Thus, the adjustedplayback duration of the first content fragments may be one-second whilethe adjusted playback duration of the second content fragments may bethree-seconds.

At step 410, the modified content asset may be transmitted. As shownherein, a plurality of content fragments having an equal playbackduration, the first adjusted content fragments, the second adjustedcontent fragments, and the advertising opportunity may be sent to auser, such as any of the user devices 114 shown in FIG. 1.

Content distributors, using the methods above, may perform a mixture ofadvertising opportunity replacement and advertising opportunityinsertion. For example, an advertising opportunity included in a firstbroadcast in VOD may be stale after a certain period of time, forexample, months later. Using the methods described herein, a contentasset, such as a video asset, may be formatted and an advertisingopportunity may be seamlessly inserted into the content asset withoutthe need to reprocess the entire content asset.

Each of the plurality of content fragments may start with aself-contained frame. For example, this may be an IDR-frame in MPEG-4nomenclature, or an I-frame in MPEG-2 nomenclature, that does notrequire any other previous video data to display. Additionally oralternatively, each audio segment may start with an audio access unitthat does not require any previous audio data to begin to play. Asdiscussed herein, when the processing is done in absence of theinformation of the knowledge of the advertisement opportunities, it isextremely unlikely that advertisement opportunities will align with thesegment boundaries. Re-processing the entire content asset is possible,but time consuming. Since the fragments are already meant to beindependent of each other, it is possible to restrict the reprocessingto just the fragments that contain the advertising opportunity, asdiscussed herein. Since the advertising opportunity does not have anyeffect on the remaining content fragments, there is no need to wastetime and resources reprocessing the entire content asset.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show example content assets provided, for example, bycontent distributor 102, utilizing the content delivery mechanismdescribed herein. As shown in FIG. 5, when information associated withan advertising opportunity is received, for example, by the contentdistributor 102 shown in FIG. 1, the information is analyzed todetermine the location of the advertising opportunity in the contentasset. Instead of processing the entire content asset, only the contentfragments immediately before and immediately after the location wherethe advertising opportunity will be inserted are processed. Thus, in anexample where a content asset comprises four content fragments and oneadvertising opportunity, only two of the content fragments need to beprocessed.

As shown in FIG. 5, the processed content asset may comprise originalasset fragment 502, adjusted asset fragment 504, advertising opportunity506, adjusted asset fragment 508, and original asset fragment 510. Thisallows the advertising opportunity to be seamlessly integrated with thecontent asset without the need to re-process the entire content asset,thus saving considerable time and money.

For example, suppose that in FIG. 5, each of the plurality of contentfragments is two seconds long prior to being adjusted for advertisementinsertion. The first fragment may span from 0-2 seconds, the secondfragment from 2-4 seconds, the third fragment from 4-6 seconds, and thefourth fragment from 6-8 seconds. Since only one advertising opportunityis to be inserted in the content asset after the second asset fragment,only that fragment and the fragment immediately following theadvertising opportunity may need to be processed. The fragments may beprocessed, for example, by 50%. Thus, the final result may be anoriginal first fragment from 0-2 seconds, an adjusted fragment from 2-3seconds followed by the advertising opportunity, a second adjustedfragment from 3-6 seconds, followed by a second original fragment from6-8 seconds.

Processing the content asset as demonstrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 may allowa content distributor to present the content asset as soon as thelicense window begins, whether an advertising opportunity has beenprovided or not. Once the advertising opportunity is provided to thecontent distributor, the content distributor may reprocess only aportion of the content fragments as described in connection with FIGS. 5and 6. This allows the content distributor to get the content to thecustomers as soon as possible, while being able to reprocess the contentasset with minimal time and money.

Examples of benefits associated with processing only a portion of thecontent fragments may be further understood in connection with FIG. 7. Acontent distributor, such as content distributor 102 shown in FIG. 1,may be configured to receive a content asset 702, as shown at step 706.The content asset 702 may be converted, for example, from one videoformat to another video format, such as one amenable to the means bywhich the content distributor's users view the content, by thetranscoder 104, as discussed herein in connection with FIG. 1. Thecontent asset 702 may be in the form, for example, of an MPEG package.

As shown at step 708, the content distributor may segment the contentasset into a plurality of content fragments, as shown at step 708.Segmenting the content asset may comprise dividing the content assetinto a plurality of content fragments each having an equal playbackduration. For example, a thirty minute content asset may be segmentedinto approximately 900 content fragments each having an equal playbackduration of two seconds.

In one example, before the start of the license window or receiving theadvertising opportunity, the content distributor may be configured togenerate a manifest that identifies the plurality of content fragments,as shown at step 710. The manifest may identify the number of contentfragments, an ordering of the content fragments, and a file name foreach of the content fragments.

At step 712, the license window may begin, allowing the contentdistributor 102 to provide the content asset to the plurality of userdevices if the content distributor has still not received an advertisingopportunity, the content distributor may be configured to allow thecontent asset to be played without inserted commercials, as shown atstep 714. Using the methods discussed herein, the content asset may besegmented and provided to the plurality of user devices without worryingabout extra time and expenses normally associated with having to processthe content asset multiple times.

At step 716, the content distributor may receive an advertisingopportunity. At this point, the content distributor may reprocess thecontent asset such that the content asset comprises the advertisingopportunity. Reprocessing the content asset may comprise generating newsegments at the advertising boundaries only, as shown at step 718. Forexample, this may comprise processing a first content fragments and asecond content fragments and inserting the advertising opportunity atthe boundary between the first content fragments and the second contentfragments, as discussed herein in connection with FIG. 4. The processedfragments may comprise only a portion of the total number of contentfragments.

At step 720, the content distributor may be configured to generate a newmanifest that identifies the new fragments and the original uniformfragments. The new manifest may identify a playback duration of thefirst content fragments, a playback duration of the second contentfragments, as well as playback duration of the advertising opportunity.The new manifest may comprise metadata for at least one of the firstcontent fragments, the second content fragments, and the advertisingopportunity.

As shown in FIG. 8, the system 100 may comprise a partial transcoder andan additional packager in order to process the portion of contentfragments and the received advertising opportunity. For example, contentdistributor 102 may receive a content asset 802. The content asset 802may be converted, for example, from one video format to another videoformat, such as one amenable to the means by which the contentdistributor's users view the content, by the transcoder 104, asdiscussed herein in connection with FIG. 1. The content asset may bedivided into a plurality of content fragments by a fragmentor associatedwith the transcoder 104. If the content distributor still has notreceived an advertising opportunity associated with the content asset802, the content distributor may make the content asset availablewithout any advertising opportunity via the origin server 108 and thecontent delivery network 110, as discussed herein in connection withFIG. 1. A user of the system may access the content asset via a userinterface associated with the content access unit 112 through any of theuser devices 114.

When the content distributor 102 later receives an advertisingopportunity, such as advertising opportunity 804, the partial transcoder806 may be configured to process the content asset 802 and theadvertising opportunity 804. The partial transcoder 806 may be similarto transcoder 104 shown in FIG. 1 or may be a transcoder with limitedfunctionality, for example, to process a portion of the contentfragments needed to seamlessly insert the advertising opportunity 804into the content asset 802. As discussed herein, the partial transcodermay only need to process less than one percent of the total number ofcontent fragments. The packager 808 may be configured to insert theadvertising opportunity into the plurality of content fragments. Thelocation of the advertising opportunity may be received as part ofinformation associated with the advertising opportunity, or may bedetermined by the packager 808, content distributor 102, or any of theother components associated with system 800.

The origin server 108 may be configured to update and save the contentasset to reflect the changes to the content fragments made by thepartial transcoder 806 and the packager 808. Updating the content assetwith the advertising opportunity may comprise updating only theadvertising opportunity and the adjusted fragments. In contrast totraditional methods, as discussed herein, this may save significantspace as the origin does not need to save two copies of the same contentasset. The content asset with the advertising opportunities may be sentto a content delivery network (CDN) 110 and made available to a user anyof the user devices 114 through the content access unit 112.

The methods and systems associated with processing a portion of theplurality of content fragments, as discussed herein, may comprisegenerating and updating a manifest associated with the content asset. Amanifest file may contain information describing various aspects of theassociated content asset that may be useful for the device 114 toplayback the content asset and/or for the content distributor 102 tostore and retrieve the content asset. For example, a manifest file mayindicate each of the plurality of content fragments, the playbackduration of each fragment, the number of fragments, and/or the properordering of the fragments necessary to effectuate a playback of thecontent asset.

FIG. 9 shows an example flow chart for a method 900. As shown at step902, a content asset comprising a plurality of content fragments may bereceived or accessed. The content asset may be received or accessed, forexample, by the content distributor 102 shown in FIG. 1. The pluralityof content fragments may be of equal playback duration.

At step 904, a manifest may be generated. The manifest may identify aplayback duration of one or more of the plurality of content fragments.The manifest may be generated, for example, by the packager 106 shown inFIG. 1. An example segment of a manifest file describing a plurality ofcontent fragments of equal playback duration is shown below.

<SegmentTemplate timescale=“90000” media=“$RepresentationID$-$Number$.ts” startNumber=“ 1 ”> <SegmentTimeline> <S d=“ 180180” r=“3952”/></SegmentTimeline> </SegmentT em plate>

As shown in the example shown above, each of the content fragments maybe 2.002 seconds long. Thus, for a content asset comprising a playbackof 90,000 tics per second, each content asset fragment may comprise180,180 tics.

At step 906, the manifest may transmitted. Transmitting the manifest mayfacilitate playback of the content asset by a recipient device, such asany of the user devices 114 shown in FIG. 1. For example, the device 114may use the manifest file to determine the fragments required to playthe program or a portion of the program and subsequently download therequired fragments using the network locations specified in the manifestfile.

At step 908, information associated with an advertising opportunity maybe received. The advertising opportunity may be received, for example,by the content distributor 102 at a time that is different from when thecontent asset was received. The information associated with the contentasset may comprise information indicating a location in the contentasset to insert the advertising opportunity. For example, theinformation associated with the advertising opportunity may containinstructions to insert the advertising opportunity ten minutes into thecontent asset.

At step 910, the manifest may be updated based on the receivedinformation. The updated manifest may identify a first asset fragmenthaving a first playback duration and a second asset fragment having asecond playback duration. The first playback duration may be differentthan the second playback duration. An example segment of manifestdescribing a content asset having content fragments of differentplayback durations is shown below.

<SegmentTemplate timescale=“90000”media=“$RepresentationID$-$Number$.ts” startNumber=“ 1 ”><SegmentTimeline> <S d=“ 180180” r=“352”/> <S t=“63603540” d=“260270”/><S t=“63873710” d=“90090/> <S t=“ 63963900 ” d~“ 180180 ” r=“3598”/></SegmentTimeline> </SegmentTemplate>

The manifest may identify at least one of the number of contentfragments in the content asset, an ordering of the content fragments,and a file name for each of the content fragments. Updating the manifestmay comprise updating at least one of the number of content fragments,the ordering of the content fragments, and a file name for at least oneof the content fragments.

Updating the manifest may comprise updating the manifest such that themanifest comprises information associated with the received advertisingopportunity. Updating the manifest such that the manifest comprisesinformation associated with the received advertising opportunity maycomprise updating the manifest such that the manifest comprisesinformation associated with an advertising opportunity specific to auser requesting playback of the content asset.

Additionally or alternatively, updating the manifest may comprisegenerating a new manifest. In the event that a new manifest isgenerated, the new manifest may identify the playback duration of thefirst asset fragment, the playback duration of the second assetfragment, and the playback duration of the received advertisingopportunity. The manifest may also comprise metadata for at least one ofthe first asset fragment, the second asset fragment, and the advertisingopportunity.

The content fragments, after being processed, may be given newidentifiers (e.g., new file names). In the case that a new manifest isgenerated, the manifest may get a new identifier (e.g., a file name).These changes may allow any delivery that has started prior to thereprocessing to complete without being affected by the reprocessing. Forexample, a content provider may be able to process the content assetwhen it is received without needing to make it temporarily unavailablein order to update the content asset and corresponding manifest. Oncethe advertising opportunities are identified, reprocessing is minimized,reducing the time that content needs to be offered withoutadvertisements. This processing may be done in a way that does notdisrupt the experience of anyone viewing the content asset throughoutthe reprocessing.

The methods disclosed herein may be used to replace an old advertisementwith a new one. Replacing an existing advertising opportunity may alsorequire updates to the existing manifest. For example, a manifest mayalready exist for a given content asset, such as a television show. Anew manifest may be generated that is specific to a given user of thesystem. Thus, when Viewer A orders the television show from the contentdistributor, the content distributor may generate a new manifest whichis specific for Viewer A and has advertisements specific for Viewer A.In order to update the manifest for Viewer A for the content asset, thecontent distributor may generate a manifest mimicking the originalmanifest up to the first adjusted fragment, then make references to thefirst adjusted fragment, the advertising opportunity, and the secondadjusted fragment, and complete the rest of the manifest mimicking theoriginal manifest. The place where the advertising opportunity existsmay be marked with a tag specific to the user, such as an event ID tag.

FIG. 10 shows an example flow chart for a method 1000. As shown at step1002, a user device may be configured to receive or access a firstcontent asset fragment having a first playback duration. The firstcontent asset fragment may have a playback duration that is identical toa plurality of other content fragments associated with the contentasset. For example, as discussed herein, a thirty-minute content assetin the form of a television show may comprise approximately 900 contentfragments having a first playback duration, such as, for example, twoseconds.

As shown at step 1004, the user device may be configured to receive oraccess a second content asset fragment having a second playback durationthat is different than the first playback duration and is indicative ofan advertising opportunity inserted at a boundary between the firstcontent fragment and the second content fragment. For example, the userdevice may be configured to receive the first content asset fragment,the second content asset fragment, and the advertising opportunity froma computing device associated with the content distributor 102 shown inFIG. 1. The computing device, prior to transmitting the first contentasset, the second content asset and the advertising opportunity to theuser device, may be configured to select, from a plurality of contentfragments having an equal playback duration and based on informationassociated with the advertising opportunity, the first content assetfragment and the second asset fragment and adjust a playback duration ofthe first content asset fragment and the second content asset fragmentsuch that the first playback duration is different than the secondplayback duration. As discussed herein, the computing device may beconfigured to adjust a playback duration of the second content assetfragment by increasing or decreasing the playback duration of thecontent asset fragment by no more than 50% in order to insert theadvertising opportunity at a boundary between the second content assetfragment without causing a delay in the content.

At step 1006, playback of at least the first content fragment and thesecond content fragment may be caused. For example, the user device maybe configured to cause playback of a plurality of content fragmentshaving an equal playback duration, the first content fragment having afirst playback duration and a second content fragment having a secondplayback duration, the first playback duration and the second playbackduration being different than the playback duration of the plurality ofcontent fragments, and the advertising opportunity.

FIG. 11 depicts a computing device that may be used in various aspects,such as the servers, modules, and/or devices depicted in FIG. 1. Withregard to the example architecture of FIG. 1, the transcoder 104,packager 106, origin server 108, content delivery network 110, and/orthe content access unit 112 may each be implemented in an instance of acomputing device 1100 of FIG. 11. The computer architecture shown inFIG. 11 shows a conventional server computer, workstation, desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, network appliance, PDA, e-reader, digitalcellular phone, or other computing node, and may be utilized to executeany aspects of the computers described herein, such as to implement themethods described in relation to FIGS. 4, 7, 9, and 10.

The computing device 1100 may include a baseboard, or “motherboard,”which is a printed circuit board to which a multitude of components ordevices may be connected by way of a system bus or other electricalcommunication paths. One or more central processing units (CPUs) 1104may operate in conjunction with a chipset 1106. The CPU(s) 1104 may bestandard programmable processors that perform arithmetic and logicaloperations necessary for the operation of the computing device 1100.

The CPU(s) 1104 may perform the necessary operations by transitioningfrom one discrete physical state to the next through the manipulation ofswitching elements that differentiate between and change these states.Switching elements may generally include electronic circuits thatmaintain one of two binary states, such as flip-flops, and electroniccircuits that provide an output state based on the logical combinationof the states of one or more other switching elements, such as logicgates. These basic switching elements may be combined to generate morecomplex logic circuits including registers, adders-subtractors,arithmetic logic units, floating-point units, and the like.

The CPU(s) 1104 may be augmented with or replaced by other processingunits, such as GPU(s) 1105. The GPU(s) 1105 may comprise processingunits specialized for but not necessarily limited to highly parallelcomputations, such as graphics and other visualization-relatedprocessing.

A chipset 1106 may provide an interface between the CPU(s) 1104 and theremainder of the components and devices on the baseboard. The chipset1106 may provide an interface to a random access memory (RAM) 1108 usedas the main memory in the computing device 1100. The chipset 1106 mayprovide an interface to a computer-readable storage medium, such as aread-only memory (ROM) 1120 or non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) (not shown), forstoring basic routines that may help to start up the computing device1100 and to transfer information between the various components anddevices. ROM 1120 or NVRAM may also store other software componentsnecessary for the operation of the computing device 1100 in accordancewith the aspects described herein.

The computing device 1100 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to remote computing nodes and computer systemsthrough local area network (LAN) 1116. The chipset 1106 may includefunctionality for providing network connectivity through a networkinterface controller (NIC) 1122, such as a gigabit Ethernet adapter. ANIC 1122 may be capable of connecting the computing device 1100 to othercomputing nodes over a network 1116. It should be appreciated thatmultiple NICs 1122 may be present in the computing device 1100,connecting the computing device to other types of networks and remotecomputer systems.

The computing device 1100 may be connected to a mass storage device 1128that provides non-volatile storage for the computer. The mass storagedevice 1128 may store system programs, application programs, otherprogram modules, and data, which have been described in greater detailherein. The mass storage device 1128 may be connected to the computingdevice 1100 through a storage controller 1124 connected to the chipset1106. The mass storage device 1128 may consist of one or more physicalstorage units. A storage controller 1124 may interface with the physicalstorage units through a serial attached SCSI (SAS) interface, a serialadvanced technology attachment (SATA) interface, a fiber channel (FC)interface, or other type of interface for physically connecting andtransferring data between computers and physical storage units.

The computing device 1100 may store data on a mass storage device 1128by transforming the physical state of the physical storage units toreflect the information being stored. The specific transformation of aphysical state may depend on various factors and on differentimplementations of this description. Examples of such factors mayinclude, but are not limited to, the technology used to implement thephysical storage units and whether the mass storage device 1128 ischaracterized as primary or secondary storage and the like.

For example, the computing device 1100 may store information to the massstorage device 1128 by issuing instructions through a storage controller1124 to alter the magnetic characteristics of a particular locationwithin a magnetic disk drive unit, the reflective or refractivecharacteristics of a particular location in an optical storage unit, orthe electrical characteristics of a particular capacitor, transistor, orother discrete component in a solid-state storage unit. Othertransformations of physical media are possible without departing fromthe scope and spirit of the present description, with the foregoingexamples provided only to facilitate this description. The computingdevice 1100 may read information from the mass storage device 1128 bydetecting the physical states or characteristics of one or moreparticular locations within the physical storage units.

In addition to the mass storage device 1128 described herein, thecomputing device 1100 may have access to other computer-readable storagemedia to store and retrieve information, such as program modules, datastructures, or other data. It should be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that computer-readable storage media may be any available mediathat provides for the storage of non-transitory data and that may beaccessed by the computing device 1100.

By way of example and not limitation, computer-readable storage mediamay include volatile and non-volatile, transitory computer-readablestorage media and non-transitory computer-readable storage media, andremovable and non-removable media implemented in any method ortechnology. Computer-readable storage media includes, but is not limitedto, RAM, ROM, erasable programmable ROM (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable ROM (“EEPROM”), flash memory or other solid-state memorytechnology, compact disc ROM (“CD-ROM”), digital versatile disk (“DVD”),high definition DVD (“HD-DVD”), BLU-RAY, or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, other magneticstorage devices, or any other medium that may be used to store thedesired information in a non-transitory fashion.

A mass storage device, such as the mass storage device 1128 depicted inFIG. 11, may store an operating system utilized to control the operationof the computing device 1100. The operating system may comprise aversion of the LINUX operating system. The operating system may comprisea version of the WINDOWS SERVER operating system from the MICROSOFTCorporation. According to additional aspects, the operating system maycomprise a version of the UNIX operating system. Various mobile phoneoperating systems, such as IOS and ANDROID, may also be utilized. Itshould be appreciated that other operating systems may also be utilized.The mass storage device 1128 may store other system or applicationprograms and data utilized by the computing device 1100.

The mass storage device 1128 or other computer-readable storage mediamay also be encoded with computer-executable instructions, which, whenloaded into the computing device 1100, transforms the computing devicefrom a general-purpose computing system into a special-purpose computercapable of implementing the aspects described herein. Thesecomputer-executable instructions transform the computing device 1100 byindicating how the CPU(s) 1104 transition between states, as describedherein. The computing device 1100 may have access to computer-readablestorage media storing computer-executable instructions, which, whenexecuted by the computing device 1100, may perform the methods describedin relation to FIGS. 4, 7, 9, and 10.

A computing device, such as the computing device 1100 depicted in FIG.11, may also include an input/output controller 1132 for receiving andprocessing input from a number of input devices, such as a keyboard, amouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, an electronic stylus, or other typeof input device. Similarly, an input/output controller 1132 may provideoutput to a display, such as a computer monitor, a flat-panel display, adigital projector, a printer, a plotter, or other type of output device.It will be appreciated that the computing device 1100 may not includeall of the components shown in FIG. 11, may include other componentsthat are not explicitly shown in FIG. 11, or may utilize an architecturecompletely different than that shown in FIG. 11.

As described herein, a computing device may be a physical computingdevice, such as the computing device 1100 of FIG. 11. A computing nodemay also include a virtual machine host process and one or more virtualmachine instances. Computer-executable instructions may be executed bythe physical hardware of a computing device indirectly throughinterpretation and/or execution of instructions stored and executed inthe context of a virtual machine.

It is to be understood that the methods and systems are not limited tospecific methods, specific components, or to particular implementations.It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for thepurpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended tobe limiting.

As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms“a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearlydictates otherwise. Ranges may be expressed herein as from “about” oneparticular value, and/or to “about” another particular value. When sucha range is expressed, another embodiment includes from the oneparticular value and/or to the other particular value. Similarly, whenvalues are expressed as approximations, by use of the antecedent“about,” it will be understood that the particular value forms anotherembodiment. It will be further understood that the endpoints of each ofthe ranges are significant both in relation to the other endpoint, andindependently of the other endpoint.

“Optional” or “optionally” means that the subsequently described eventor circumstance may or may not occur, and that the description includesinstances where said event or circumstance occurs and instances where itdoes not.

Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the word“comprise” and variations of the word, such as “comprising” and“comprises,” means “including but not limited to,” and is not intendedto exclude, for example, other components, integers or steps. “Example”means “an example of” and is not intended to convey an indication of apreferred or ideal embodiment. “Such as” is not used in a restrictivesense, but for explanatory purposes.

Components are described that may be used to perform the describedmethods and systems. When combinations, subsets, interactions, groups,etc., of these components are described, it is understood that whilespecific references to each of the various individual and collectivecombinations and permutations of these may not be explicitly described,each is specifically contemplated and described herein, for all methodsand systems. This applies to all aspects of this application including,but not limited to, operations in described methods. Thus, if there area variety of additional operations that may be performed it isunderstood that each of these additional operations may be performedwith any specific embodiment or combination of embodiments of thedescribed methods.

The present methods and systems may be understood more readily byreference to the following detailed description of preferred embodimentsand the examples included therein and to the Figures and theirdescriptions.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the methods andsystems may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software andhardware aspects. Furthermore, the methods and systems may take the formof a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program instructions (e.g., computer software)embodied in the storage medium. More particularly, the present methodsand systems may take the form of web-implemented computer software. Anysuitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized including harddisks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices.

Embodiments of the methods and systems are described below withreference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods,systems, apparatuses and computer program products. It will beunderstood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams andflowchart illustrations, respectively, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may be loadedon a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions which execute on the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus generate a means for implementing thefunctions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that may direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including computer-readableinstructions for implementing the function specified in the flowchartblock or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loadedonto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process suchthat the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

The various features and processes described herein may be usedindependently of one another, or may be combined in various ways. Allpossible combinations and sub-combinations are intended to fall withinthe scope of this disclosure. In addition, certain methods or processblocks may be omitted in some implementations. The methods and processesdescribed herein are also not limited to any particular sequence, andthe blocks or states relating thereto may be performed in othersequences that are appropriate. For example, described blocks or statesmay be performed in an order other than that specifically described, ormultiple blocks or states may be combined in a single block or state.The example blocks or states may be performed in serial, in parallel, orin some other manner. Blocks or states may be added to or removed fromthe described example embodiments. The example systems and componentsdescribed herein may be configured differently than described. Forexample, elements may be added to, removed from, or rearranged comparedto the described example embodiments.

It will also be appreciated that various items are shown as being storedin memory or on storage while being used, and that these items orportions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storagedevices for purposes of memory management and data integrity.Additionally or alternatively, in other embodiments, some or all of thesoftware modules and/or systems may execute in memory on another deviceand communicate with the shown computing systems via inter-computercommunication. Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of thesystems and/or modules may be implemented or provided in other ways,such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, butnot limited to, one or more application-specific integrated circuits(“ASICs”), standard integrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executingappropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embeddedcontrollers), field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), complexprogrammable logic devices (“CPLDs”), etc. Some or all of the modules,systems, and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as softwareinstructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such asa hard disk, a memory, a network, or a portable media article to be readby an appropriate device or via an appropriate connection. The systems,modules, and data structures may also be transmitted as generated datasignals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digitalpropagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media,including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take avariety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analogsignal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Suchcomputer program products may also take other forms in otherembodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced withother computer system configurations.

While the methods and systems have been described in connection withpreferred embodiments and specific examples, it is not intended that thescope be limited to the particular embodiments set forth, as theembodiments herein are intended in all respects to be illustrativerather than restrictive.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that anymethod set forth herein be construed as requiring that its operations beperformed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim doesnot actually recite an order to be followed by its operations or it isnot otherwise specifically stated in the claims or descriptions that theoperations are to be limited to a specific order, it is no way intendedthat an order be inferred, in any respect. This holds for any possiblenon-express basis for interpretation, including: matters of logic withrespect to arrangement of steps or operational flow; plain meaningderived from grammatical organization or punctuation; and the number ortype of embodiments described in the specification.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations may be made without departing from thescope or spirit of the present disclosure. Other embodiments will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practices described herein. It is intended that thespecification and example figures be considered as example only, with atrue scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a content assetcomprising a plurality of content fragments; receiving informationassociated with an advertising opportunity, wherein the informationindicates a location after a beginning and before an end of either afirst content fragment or a second content fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments to insert the advertising opportunity; generating,based on the received information, a first modified content fragmentthat begins from the beginning of the first content fragment and ends atthe location and a second modified content fragment that begins at thelocation and ends at the end of the second content fragment, wherein thefirst modified content fragment has a first playback duration and thesecond modified content fragment has a second playback duration that isdifferent than the first playback duration, and wherein one of the firstmodified content fragment and the second modified content fragmentcomprises at least a portion of the first fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments and at least a portion of the second fragment of theplurality of content fragments; generating a modified content assetcomprising the first modified content fragment, the second modifiedcontent fragment, and the advertising opportunity; and causingtransmission of the modified content asset.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein each of the plurality of content fragments has an equal playbackduration that is different than the first playback duration and thesecond playback duration.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprisingcausing transmission of a stream, the stream comprising the plurality ofcontent fragments having an equal playback duration, the first modifiedcontent fragment, the second modified content fragment, and theadvertising opportunity.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisinggenerating a manifest identifying a playback duration of one or more ofthe plurality of content fragments.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe information associated with the advertising opportunity is specificto a device requesting playback of the content asset.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first modified content fragment comprises the firstfragment of the plurality of content fragments and a portion of thesecond fragment of the plurality of content fragments.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first modified content fragment comprises at leasta portion of the first fragment of the plurality of content fragmentsand at least a portion of the second fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second modifiedcontent fragment comprises at least a portion of the first fragment ofthe plurality of content fragments and at least a portion of the secondfragment of the plurality of content fragments.
 9. A method comprising:receiving, by a computing device, a content asset comprising a pluralityof content fragments; generating a manifest identifying a playbackduration of one or more of the plurality of content fragments;transmitting the manifest; receiving information associated with anadvertising opportunity, wherein the information indicates a locationafter a beginning and before an end of either a first content fragmentor a second content fragment of the plurality of content fragments toinsert the advertising opportunity; generating an updated manifest thatindicates a first modified content fragment that begins from thebeginning of the first content fragment and ends at the location and asecond modified content fragment that begins at the location and ends atthe end of the second content fragment, wherein the first modifiedcontent fragment has a first playback duration and the second modifiedcontent fragment has a second playback duration that is different thanthe first playback duration, and wherein one of the first modifiedcontent fragment and the second modified content fragment comprises atleast a portion of the first fragment of the plurality of contentfragments and at least a portion of the second fragment of the pluralityof content fragments; and causing transmission of the updated manifest.10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating an updated manifestcomprises updating the manifest to comprise the information associatedwith the advertising opportunity.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereingenerating the updated manifest further comprises updating the manifestto include information associated with an advertising opportunityspecific to a recipient device.
 12. The method of claim 9, whereingenerating an updated manifest comprises creating a new manifest. 13.The method of claim 9, wherein the updated manifest indicates theplayback duration of the first content fragment, the playback durationof the second content fragment, and the playback duration of theadvertising opportunity.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein the manifestfurther indicates a quantity of content fragments, an ordering of thecontent fragments, and a file name for each of the content fragments.15. The method of claim 14, wherein updating the manifest comprisesupdating at least one of the quantity of content fragments, the orderingof the content fragments, and a file name for at least one of thecontent fragments.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting themanifest comprises transmitting the manifest responsive to determiningthat a license window has begun.
 17. The method of claim 9, wherein thefirst modified content fragment comprises the first fragment of theplurality of content fragments and at least a portion of the secondfragment of the plurality of content fragments.
 18. A method comprising:receiving a content asset comprising a plurality of content fragments;receiving information associated with an advertising opportunity,wherein the information indicates a location after a beginning andbefore an end of either a first content fragment or a second contentfragment of the plurality of content fragments to insert the advertisingopportunity; generating, based on the received information, a firstmodified content fragment that begins from the beginning of the firstcontent fragment and ends at the location, wherein the first modifiedcontent fragment is based on a first fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments and a second fragment of the plurality of contentfragments; generating, based on the second fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments and the received information, a second modifiedcontent fragment that begins at the location and ends at the end of thesecond content fragment, wherein the first modified content fragment hasa first playback duration and the second modified content fragment has asecond playback duration that is different than the first playbackduration; generating a modified content asset comprising the firstmodified content fragment, the second modified content fragment, and theadvertising opportunity; and causing transmission of the modifiedcontent asset.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein each of the pluralityof content fragments has an equal playback duration that is differentthan the first playback duration and the second playback duration. 20.The method of claim 18, wherein the first modified content fragmentcomprises at least a portion of the first fragment of the plurality ofcontent fragments and at least a portion of the second fragment of theplurality of content fragments.